


Kally of Conté

by Tamari



Series: exile [1]
Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Background Relationships, Corus (Tortall), Family Issues, Forum: Goldenlake, Gen, but this fic is really about Kally's family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:29:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25499860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tamari/pseuds/Tamari
Summary: Tortall is Kally’s home. Kally counts down to good-bye. / Part 1 of 3.
Relationships: Faleron of King's Reach/Kalasin of Conté
Series: exile [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1847308
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Kally of Conté

Kally is of Conté, but she is from Corus. She knows the city and her people like she knows her mother’s face.  
  
Kally has walked the streets of Unicorn District, bartered Upmarket, and learned to heal in the Temple District. She’s even explored the Lower City in disguise, with an anxious Roald by her side. She’s long since seen everything there is to see in the palace, from the gardens to the catacombs where Aunt Alanna killed Duke Roger. Kally watches the pages practice their drills on the training rounds. She sighs wistfully and waits for the day it will be her turn.  
  
Of course, that day never comes.  
  
When Kally is almost thirteen, she is sent to King’s Reach at the edge of the desert. She is one of fifteen noble girls learning management and diplomacy at the unofficial convent alternative. She is one of fifteen girls, and she is devastatingly lonely.  
  
Sometimes, she climbs a tree in the garden and listens to the others talk below. They are funny, vivacious, smart girls. But when Kally is around, their pranks, giggles, and gossip become stifling protocols and quiet observations.  
  
Countess Araceli discourages her from going out to the fiefdom villages. “For your safety, Your Highness,” says the Countess.  
  
Her pursed lips say, _Princesses do not mingle with common folk._  
  
Kally goes anyway. She meets her people, beggars and merchants, farmers and butchers. She plays with children, heals wounds, and dances at festivals. She doesn’t let herself think about the choice she made in her father’s office; she doesn’t let herself think about leaving all this behind. She falls more in love with Tortall every day.  
  
Faleron of King’s Reach becomes her first, best friend. He doesn’t hold himself at a distance, physically or emotionally, even though she is a princess.  
  
“Roald taught me better,” he tells her, grinning handsomely. “And you don’t hide yourself away nearly as well as he does.”

In the sweltering summers, Kally makes Faleron teach her what he’s learned in training. He teaches her swordplay, archery, and hand-to-hand. Faleron teaches her how to kiss, too, and then he teaches her how to let go of what cannot be. It is a lesson she must learn over and over again.  
  
When Kally is seventeen, she accompanies her family on the Great Progress for Roald’s bride. Kally doesn’t much care for tournaments, which only remind her of what she has given up, but she is ready to see the vastness of the kingdom.  
  
“Kally!” Vania flies into her arms.  
  
It is strange to see her family after four years at King’s Reach. Liam is fifteen, Jasson fourteen, Lianne thirteen, Vania only twelve. Roald is months away from the Ordeal of Knighthood. Kally’s oldest brother smiles at her over Vania’s shoulder, and the polite distance in it almost makes her stagger. Roald smiles at her like he doesn’t know her.  
  
Lianne and Vania follow Kally around like dark-haired ducklings; she thinks of Pirate’s Swoop and Daine Sarrasri and Roald. The girls splash around in Lake Naxen, like they did all those years ago at Barony Olau. Vania loves archery and sneaks wine at banquets. Lianne loves maps and canters her horse far ahead of the others. Kally composes a hundred good-byes in her mind.  
  
In Tirragen Castle, Kally’s father praises her diplomatic responses to Lady Lucette’s barbs. At Blythden, she spars with Liam, whose knightmaster is grudgingly impressed with her skills. She coaxes quiet Jasson into telling her about his studies at the university. In winter, the Progress returns to Corus, and Roald survives his Ordeal of Knighthood. Kally congratulates him coolly.  
  
They head south through Irontown and towards Persopolis. The desert heat makes Kally long for summer at King’s Reach and for Faleron. Her best friend has gone north with his knight-master, following whispers of Scanran unrest.  
  
Shinkokami reminds Kally of the girls at King’s Reach, her aloofness foreign in manner but familiar in essence. Kally watches the new royal couple, clenches her fists, and holds her tongue. She thinks Shinkokami the perfect match for Roald — all etiquette, nothing genuine, nothing real.  
  
Kally is introduced to dignitaries from Tusaine and Tyra, shows her courtesies and her teeth. The Progress travels north again: towards Faleron, towards war. Her parents leave Roald and Shinkokami in charge of the Progress. Roald and Shinkokami leave Kally in charge of the children.  
  
“Will we go to war with Scanra?” Lianne asks, trembling in Kally’s arms. Her violent dreams wake Kally every night.  
  
Kally strokes Lianne’s dark hair and kisses Vania’s forehead like a mother. “Pray to Mithros we don’t.”  
  
Kally counts what is left: the dispatched knights, the fiefs on the Progress, the steps of her dances, the jewels in her crown. Kally counts the days until she turns eighteen. Kally counts the years until good-bye.  
  
The Progress ends in Corus, where it began. Kally walks along the Olorun in a hooded cloak, listening to her people speak of Scanra and grain and refugees. Faleron becomes a knight that Midwinter and immediately returns north.  
  
“Be safe, my friend,” Kally tells him. She hugs Faleron farewell, but he writes to her like a lover.  
  
War waits in the wings. Keladry of Mindelan becomes Tortall’s second lady knight. There are new lines drawn across Queen Thayet’s face. Kally counts down.  
  
Kally spends the Scanran War in Corus, pacing the halls, pacing the streets. Roald and Shinkokami’s wedding is postponed, while he is shunted to the side as a healer on the front. Kally is a better healer.  
  
Without her younger siblings, her only friends in the palace, she thinks she would go mad. Liam waits for his Ordeal and practices jousting. Jasson lives in the library and invents new spells. Vania shoots a recurve bow and hits the target every time. Lianne paints a portrait of the Conté girls and earns the praise of Volney Rain.  
  
Kally stares at the brushstrokes of her own sapphire eyes. Lianne has painted Kally with her arms around the younger girls, her face wiser and sadder than reality. Lianne has painted Kally with a silver sword at her hip.  
  
Kally turns twenty, and she counts her last year in Tortall in the stream of letters that come to Corus. Faleron writes to her like a lover. Kaddar writes to her like a stranger. Roald doesn’t write to her at all.


End file.
